Luận văn thạc sĩ Quản lý công: Situation of school non-attendance and drop-put of children in primary school in the northern mountainous area - Realities and solutions

UPPSALA UNIVERSITET &UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS & BUSINESS,VNUH UPPSALA ¬ UNIVERSITET MASTER THESIS OF MPPM SITUATION OF SCHOOL NON-ATTENDANCE AND DROP-OUT OF CHILDREN IN PRIMARY SCHOOL IN

UPPSALA UNIVERSITET &

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS & BUSINESS,VNUH

UPPSALA ¬

UNIVERSITET

MASTER THESIS OF MPPM

SITUATION OF SCHOOL NON-ATTENDANCE AND DROP-OUT OF

CHILDREN IN PRIMARY SCHOOL IN THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINOUS

AREA- REALITIES AND SOLUTIONS”

Authors Ms Hoang Thj Thu Huyén

Mr Nguyén Van Duan

Mr Pham An Toan

Supervisor: Dr Lennart Wikander,

Uppsala University, Sweden

University of Economics, Hanoi National University MPPM INTAKE 4B - Group 5

Hanoi, April

By the academic year 2010-2011, about 212,800 children did not attend school

of which 21,127 children were in primary school age Provinces that have highratio of dropouts in primary schooling are in the mountainous areas in the North,Central Highland and South West Regions of Vietnam These provinces have

unique geographical characteristics, climate and a variety of ethnic minoritiesfacing difficult socio-economic conditions’ According to assessments of some

researches, apart from common issues such as poor school facilities, combinedclasses, shortage of teaching staff, children face obstacles as long distance fromhome to school, severe weather conditions, gender inequality, backwardtraditions or lacking household assets All those aspects contribute to dropoutrate in the Northern mountainous areas

The research group studied available studies along with conducting a fieldtrip toYen Bai province - a mountainous province in the area to provide more evidencewith the research topic “ Situation of school non attendance and drop out ofchildren in primary school in the Northern Mountainous area- Realities andSolutions” with the aim of minimizing the situation of children dropping out ofschool in this area A short video showing interview in the case study in Yen Baiprovince is enclosed for your reference

We would like to sincerely thank to Dr Lennart Wikander and Dr Pham Vi

Thang who supervised our group and gave us their constructive feedback in the

process of writing this thesis

Our team also would like to thank colleagues from the Primary SchoolDepartment of MOET, Children Bureau of MOLISA and Policy Department ofCEMA who assisted us actively to research this interesting subject area andprovided with valuable information on the situation of dropout in primary school

in the Northern mountainous area We would like to express our gratefulness to

colleagues from Hong Ca Commune, Tran Yen District, Yen Bai province for

their kind support and assistance when we conducted the case study

We would like to extend our gratitude to all the lectures in the Master

Programme on Public Management These teachers provided us with deeper

professional knowledge as well as created good educational environment withthe aim of finalizing this thesis as well as enable us apply to our daily work

Nu

Title:

“SITUATION OF SCHOOL NON-ATTENDANCE AND DROP-OUT OF

CHILDREN IN PRIMARY SCHOOL IN THE NORTHERN

MOUNTAINOUS AREA: REALITIES AND SOLUTIONS”

Level: Thesis of the Master of Public Management

Authors: (Group 5)

Ms.Hoang Thị Thu Huyền Mr.Nguyén Van Duan

Mr.Pham An Toan(MPPM Intake 4B)

Supervisors:

PhD Lennart Wikander, Uppsala University, Sweden

PhD Pham Vũ Thắng, University of Economics,

Hanoi National University

Date of completion: 2 April 2012

Aim: Drop-out children in primary school and low quality of primary

education will affect directly to other educational levels The solution for

prevention of drop-out is required in order to improve the education quality aswell as assure full enjoyment and realization of human rights to education

Therefore, we choose the topic of "SITUATION OF NON ATTENDANCE

AND DROPOUT OF CHILDREN IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN THE

NORTHERN MOUNTAINOUS REGION - REALTIES AND SOLUTIONS"

because of the following reasons:

- Firstly: At present, the highest ratio of dropouts belongs to most of

provinces in the Northern mountainous region These provinces have difficultsocio-economic conditions and geographic and climate characteristics withmany ethnic minorities

- Secondly: The previous studies only set forth the general causes of the

situation of children’s dropouts without in-depth analysis and fully reflectedthe real situation of the dropouts in primary schools in the northernmountainous region

- Thirdly: Primary school is the basic educational level The problem of

primary school dropout is always a hot issue because of its influence on theformation of basic knowledge and the forming of children’s personality

- Fourthly: this topic is selected as all 3 members of the group have been working in this field or closely related to it They have good experiences relating to children’s issues through their daily work in three Ministries including: Committee on Minorities (policies on ethnic minorities) and the Ministry of Education and Training (related to research on educational and training policies) and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (studying related to social issues of poverty reduction and gender equality).

Methods:

The research group use methods of collecting and analyzing secondary data

(from reliable document resources of relevant ministries, agencies in Vietnam as

well as previous researches of development projects or from international

organizations) In additional, the group conducted case study in grass-root level

by interviewing in Hong Ca commune, Tran Yen District, Yen Bai Province in order to collect primary data with the aim of providing actual evidences in the process of writing the thesis The group also developed research methods by

analyzing in this thesis

Results and conclusions:

Information and data in the thesis proved assumptions and assessmentsmentioned in thesis Results and analysis indicate that the research on drop-out

problem in primary school is very important, practical and seem to be a hot issuethat needs to be solved urgently in the Northern mountainous area The groupdoes hope that this topic would serve as useful material for developing policies

and programmes on reducing drop-outs in this area

Suggestions for future research:

The research group found that there were many causes and factors impacting onchildren dropping out schools In order to solve these issues, appropriate

solutions should be considered such as developing a cadre of qualified teachers,

pupils center of education, transforming the education at primary schools intoall-day caring and teaching (providing lunch-break and lunch incentive atschool) In particular, during the researching process (including study documentsand field visits), we have found out that teacher is one of the most importantfactor affecting the attendance of children in the northern mountainous region It

is necessary to study in details the concerns of teachers in Northern mountainous

region in order to develop specific mechanisms and policies on preferentialtreatment for teachers of this region

Contribution of the thesis:

The thesis identified factors impacting the drop-out children in primary school

as well as proposed some solutions to lessen the situation of children dropping

out of school in the Northern mountainous provinces The thesis is expected to

be a scientific foundation for development and implementation of policies

related to education issues with the aim to contributing to the achievement ofexpected results from the implementation on projects and proposals under the

"Education Development Strategies 2009-2020" in order to set up policies to

encourage poor pupils to go to school and reduce the rates of dropouts ofchildren in primary schools

Key words: Reducing children’s drop-out in primary school

ABSTRACT

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS.

LIST OF GRAPHS, CHARTS AND TABLES

CHAPTER I: METHODOLOGY OF THE THESI

1.1 The urgency of the thesis topic

1 2 The research question

1.3 Target groups and scope of the research

1.3.1 Target groups:

1.3.2 Scope of the research:

1.4 Methodology

CHAPTER II: SITUATION OF DROPPING OUT IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

IN THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINOUS AREAS

2.1 Situatio

2.1.1 Situation of primary education in Vietnam.

1.2 Children dropping out in the Northern mountainous are:

2.2 Factors affecting children dropping out in primary school

2.2.1 Geographic and climate features

2.2.1 Learning and teaching conditions

2.2.3 Parent and children’s thinking of education

2.2.4 Influence of culture and custom and limitations of gender equality

2.2.5 The teachers issue

2.2.6 Economic development conditions

2.3 Findings of case study in Hong Ca commune of Tran Yen district of Yen Bai province

2.3.1 Overview of the Case Study

2.3.2 Major Fact Findings

CHAPTER III: SOLUTIONS TO REDUCE DROPPING OUT OF PRIMARY

SCHOOL CHILDREN IN THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINOUS AREAS

3.1 Implementing incentive teacher policies in the mountainous areas

3.2 Improving local infrastructure and school facilities

3.3 Working with parents and children towards greater school attendance 38 3.4 Communication and awareness raising on the importance of education in communities

3.5 Knowledge sharing and enhancing awareness on basic human rights

CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1 Conclusion

4.2 Recommendations

4.3 Suggestions for future research

REFERENCE

ANNEX 1: INTERVIEWING SURVEYS

ANNEX 2: LIST OF INTERVIEWEES

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

MOET Ministry of Education and Training

MOLISA Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social affairs

CEMA The State Committee for Ethnic Minority AffairsGSO General Statistic Office

MPI Ministry of Investment and Planning

INGO International non-governmental organization

NGO Non-governmental organization

UNCRC United Nations Convention on the Rights of the

Child

UN United Nations

UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund

ADB Asian Development Bank

WB World Bank

Chart 1:

Chart 2:

Diagram |:

Chart 3:

LIST OF GRAPHS, CHARTS AND TABLES

Raté of children lacking fO6dsssssessnsisiissttiikditidEGELS50a80588300 11

Times of using health services yearly . -« 12Factors impacting on children dropping out of school 16

Raté Of Labouf Childfefi((P9)L:sesssssnseeiisesiislBidit010001083888466 24

CHAPTER I

METHODOLOGY OF THE THESIS

1.1 The urgency of the thesis topic

Investment in education is a non-profit type of investment which has no greetingapplause, banners, illusory scenery or parties full of flowers, champagne and

candles but silent sacrifice However, it has certain attractiveness and brings aout sustainable achievements for the nation.

Researches and actual evidence demonstrate that investment in primaryelucation strategically brings about benefits for the country in the long term

because -of its great social profits In fact, school dropping out and primary

elucation of low quality make a direct impact on higher education’ Therefore,

naintaining the total number of pupils of classes stably and addressing school

đopping out is a regular work of schools, families and communities Overall, social progress, Government’s investment in education, positive attitude of families and of the society towards education development, and enthusiasm of teachers helped reducing the pressure of dropping out of school.

Ir fact, the poverty rate among the ethnic minorities remains still considerably

hgh As of 2008, 29% of the ethnic minorities were still poor, and up to 47%

siffered from food security in 2006° These figures reflect the poor living

conditions of ethnic minorities in mountainous areas while appealing for atention in upcoming time Notably, children in the Northern mountainous

areas are the most vulnerable group concerning their physical development

They usually do not receive good health care during the pre-natal period Logically after their birth, they are undersized with weak constitution and

vilnerable to infectious diseases The living environment is quite severe Sincette people live far from medical centres, it is not easy to access health careservices Women rarely go to health care centres for ante-natal care, and give

Development Skills” of World Bank in Vietnam, 2010

3 of the way achieving Millennium Development Goals and towards 2015, MPI, 2010, page 24

10

birth in their homes When they suffer from a disease, they usually ask atraditional healer to make ceremonial offerings for treatment or use traditional

herbal medicine They only go to medical centres or hospital when they are

seriously ill because they cannot afford hospital fee Living environment is of

poor hygiene standard There is a lack of safe water and toilets, so communicable diseases spread regularly Although the authorities have

promoted communication messages on hygiene and provided technical support

to deal with the issues, the majority of the population have not yet acquired sufficient knowledge on disease prevention Consequently, almost all the children under 5 are malnourished; 29.2% of Vietnamese children suffer from anaemia of which the ratio in the Northern mountainous areas accounts for 34.8% In addition, ethnic minority children have serious lack of food and lack

of health services more than Kinh children (Chart 1 and Chart 2)* All of these

aspects affect negatively the health of the children at the school age.

“

Chart 1: Rate of children lacking food

Times

Chart 2: Times of using health services yearly

At the national scale, according to annual reports of local authorities, the

work on maintaining the total number of pupils of classes has been implemented

fairly well However, the considerable number of dropouts in primary schools inremote areas of the Northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam is of a greatconcern An urgent need to address these issues led the research group toconduct this study as follows:

- According to the MOET statistics, provinces having the high rate of

children dropping out are often found at low socio-economic development in the

Northern mountainous area, the Highland and the West Southern area’ This has

been affecting the progress of socio-economic development of those localities.Previous studies reflected only one aspect of primary school attendance drop-outrespectively For example, the scientific research document of technicalassistance project “VIE02/001-SEDEMA and EMPCD” on strengtheningcapacity of CEMA on development, implementation and monitoring of policies

on ethnic minorities conducted survey on factors affecting children dropping out.However, those only combined the process of evaluating the situation of poorchildren Other study - a document on rapid and sustainable solutions on poverty

* MOET Statistic Report in the school year 2010-2011

12

reduction for ethnic minorities in mountainous area in the period of 2011-2015

conducted by UN in Vietnam showed several causes of drop-outs

- Primary education in Vietnam consists of five grades, starting with year-old children Children are supposed to complete a primary school without

6-repetition at the age of 11 Primary education creates a basic foundation for

following education level and attracted attentions of families and society.Therefore, dropping out in primary school is always a hot issue because of directimpact on forming fundamental knowledge and human dignity of children This

is one of the most important task to develop quality education of the country in

general, and the education sector in particular

- The investigated topic is in line with inter-sector work and linked withgroup member’s experiences in different fields In particular, Mr Nguyen VanDuan, CEMA senior official has a lot of experience in the field of ethnicminorities Ms Hoang Thi Thu Huyen, a MOLISA official, has wide experience

in the field of social policies and gender equality And Mr Pham An Toan,MOET official has many experiences in education and training

1 2 The research questionThe research question: which factors affect primary school drop-out in theNorthern mountainous area? The research group focused on studying factorsrelated to geographic conditions, traditional customs and learning and teachingconditions In order to answer the research question, the research group willcarried out some contents as follows:

- Investigating the situation of dropping out from primary school in theNorthern mountainous area by reviewing and analyzing available studies,secondly the research group aimed to come up with suitable solutions

- Conducting fieldtrip to collect primary data, finding causes and reasons

of children dropping out in this area

- Propose solutions to minimize the situation of children dropping out inprimary school in this area

1.3 Target groups and scope of the research1.3.1 Target groups:

The target groups include primary pupils at school and drop-outs Sincethe factors affecting the drop-out at primary schools are different (quality ofschool facilities, schooling conditions, economic condition of families) othertarget groups were selected: parents, local authorities, educational managementstaff and teachers

1.3.2 Scope of the research:

- The study area is represented by low economic development,complicated geography, severe climate, many ethnic minorities, havingbackward customs and difficult living conditions These provinces in theNorthern mountainous area consist of Cao Bang, Bac Can, Lang Son, Thai

Nguyen, Bac Giang, Tuyen Quang, Ha Giang, Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Lai Chau, Dien Bien, Son La and Hoa Binh.

~ Data resources:

v Using secondary data: statistics of MOLISA, MOET, CEMA and

other available researches

v Using primary data: Conducting data collection in the fieldtrip at

Hong Ca 2 Primary School of Hong Ca commune, Tran YenDistrict, Yen Bai province The research group interviewed 25persons, namely 2 drop-out children, 10 pupils, 5 teachers, 5

parents, 2 district educational management staff and 1 local

authority staff (Please see content of in-depth interviews for eachgroup and the list of the interviewees in Annex I and Annex II)

1.4 Methodology

The researcher group started with studying the research document of technicalassistance project “VIE02/001-SEDEMA and EMPCD” on Strengthening

capacity of CEMA on development, implementation and Monitoring of policies

‘on ethnic minorities and results of Research on the National Social Ethic minority and Development in Vietnam conducted by World bank in 2011

Analysis-14

These studies pointed out that the issue of children dropping out of school would

be impacted by below factors:

- Economic constraints and poverty

- Poor school facilities

- Unfluent popular language of ethnic minority children

- Lacking awareness on education of children and their parents

Based on that, the group developed research methods by analyzing two-sided

issue as following:

- Learning and teaching conditions: currently, the Government has beenimplementing policies and programs to support education such as: upgradingschool infrastructure, lunch incentive for pupils at primary school indisadvantaged areas and teacher incentives However, school facilities may benot assured; a teacher intensive policy by region has not been fully implemented

The State covers only 40% budget of lunch meal for pupils in disadvantaged and

remote areas, remaining expenses depend on local support and mobilizingresources from the community However, this area is inhabited by mostly poorpeople so that it is very difficult to mobilize funds from the community

- Traditional customs: Heads of villages are the most respected personselected by inhabitants in these villages in order to instruct and rule the people’slives in the community This is considered a traditional custom with a criticalcultural character of ethnic minority groups which was formed and maintainedfor a long time Ethnic minority people always believe and follow these heads’advices Because these heads of villages gained lots of experiences in life andthey are respected by many people, they are considered to have a high level ofknowledge in the community They are one of the most important groups groupwho play a significant role in introducing laws and policies of the Sate to localinhabitants in the most effective way They assist to keep political and socialsecurity while mobilizing inhabitants and their families, preventing free

migration, advising families in these areas to let their children go to school.

However, there are some limitations Because of difficult economic conditionsand traditional life, many heads of villages do not prevent superstitious practices

and backward traditional customs Those customs include for instance ghostworshiping to avoid diseases instead of going to a health centers or practicingchild marriages These practices affect people’s health while hinderingopportunity of school attendance for children in these areas.

- Gender issues related to drop-out: gender equality indicates that man andwoman have equal position and role; there are given equal conditions and

opportunities to develop their capacities for development of the community,

family; they can equally enjoy the achievements of that development® Based on

that, boys and girls are given equal care, education and provided with equalopportunities to study, work, enjoy, entertain and develop by the family In fact,

gender equality and empowerment of women contributes to achievement of

universal primary education’ However, there still existing backward traditional

customs and gender inequalities: a girl in ethnic minority areas does not go to

school because of doing domestic work Later on, if her family faces economic

difficulties she has to get married (as child betrothal customs) These also

prevent opportunities going to school of both girl child and boy child.

Diagram 1: Factors impacting on children dropping out of school

* Item 3, Article 5, Gender Equality Law

7 World Development Report in 2012: Gender Equality and Development

16

This thesis reflects specialized research methods of pubic management in theprocess of conducting the research as follows:

- Methods of analysis, comparison and synthesis

- Using available results and findings

- SWOT analysis, mind map approach to the research issues in a logical andpractical way

CHAPTER IISITUATION OF DROPPING OUT IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

IN THE NORTHERN MOUN NOUS AREAS

2.1 Situation

2.1.1 Situation of primary education in Vietnam

Vietnam has gained significant achievements in improving educationquality at primary and secondary levels In general, the percentages of boys andgirls aged 6- 14 years in schools (primary and secondary school education)

represent around 94%* Currently, 55 out of 63 cities and provinces of the

country have achieved compulsory primary education for children in the properage range In principle, a commune which has 80% of children at school age

attending schools is acknowledged that it has universalized education

successfully By June 2011, 11,016 out of 11,088 communes of the country,equivalent to the 99.4% of the communes, reached a certain standard of

compulsory junior secondary education, and 100% of the districts reached a

certain standard of compulsory junior secondary education Having 1 million

drop-outs in 2008, Vietnam ranked 1“ place in South East Asia in terms of the

number of dropouts’ In the two years 2009 and 2010, there was a fall in the

number of dropouts mainly in underdeveloped areas with total amount of more

than 200,000 children dropping out of school per year!9,

Reasoning out the high ratio of dropouts, the Program “Children’s lives”conducted a survey among people the youth and adolescents between 6 and 18

in young families Among 491 dropouts, 40% said they were fed up withlearning; 12% did not go to school because they had to do housework, 8% saidhigh school fee was the main reason; and 7% dropped out of schools becausethey were busy earning money

* Vietnam: 2/3 of the way achieving Millennium Development Goals and towards 2015, MPI, 2010, page 43

° M&E report of ADB, 2009

"© MOET report in the school year 2009-2010

18

The rate of dropouts in ethnic minorities is still very high If comparedbetween the rates of dropouts among ethnics, the ethnic minority rate is highermore than double time in the Kinh rate About 30% of interviewed ethnichouseholds stated that there was at least 1 child in their family dropped-out,

compared with 16 % of Kinh households".

1.2 Children dropping out in the Northern mountainous areas

Children at primary education level in the Northern mountainous areasaccount for 90.5% of all children in school ages; the proportion of schoolgirls

and school boys is 80.49% and 86.21% respectively The proportion of school

girls and school boys having completed primary education in the 11-15 age

range is 64.50% and 65.31% respectively’ Obviously, there is a decrease in the

proportion of school girls and school boys completing primary education

compared with the proportion of school enrolment This reflects the situation of

drop-outs in this area

There is still existing gender gap in dropout rate in this area Among the

dropouts, girl children account for over 70% Regarding kindergarten age, the

girls are less likely to attend school (72%) than boys (81%)'° The government

has developed policies on gender equality International organizations and

non-governmental organizations have taken a lot of efforts to implement the policies

such as Gender Equality Law, National strategy for the Advancement of Women

to 2010, National Strategy on Gender Equality in the period of 2011-2010,National Programme on Gender Equality from 2011-2015 to address gender

discrimination step by step However, the thinking of male preference still exists.

With this thinking, when a family has financial difficulty, sons can continue theirstudy whereas daughters have to stay at home to help their parents earn a living

A considerable number of drop-outs are children of disadvantaged groups

of ethnic minorities, those who are disabled or physically disadvantaged, living

"' Research on National Social Analysis-Ethic minority and Development in Vietnam conducted by World

bank in 2011, page 25

" Vietnam: 2/3 of the way achieving Millennium Development Goals towards 2015, MPI, 2010, page 39-40

in remote areas or in poor households They do not have opportunities to accessbasic education In remaining areas such as communes and villages, disabled

children cannot attend school because of geographical inaccessibility (walking distance); moreover, they do not know the official language; their learning

ability is limited; and they usually feel depressed about their situation

Another concern is the high illiteracy rate, especially of women in mountainous areas According to the national sociological survey in 2009,

population of ethnic minorities Hmong, Khmer and Kinh aged 10 years which isunable to read makes up 54%, 24.4% and 3.8% respectively The majority of

illiterate people consist of elderly and women of ethnic minorities They often feel desperate from their situation, so it is challenging for them to meet other

people and gain knowledge In certain schools in remote areas, many pupils atgrade 5 do not know how to read; some others at grade 9 do not know how to do

basic mathematics This problem even deepens the impact on the situation of

dropping out in primary school in the mountainous areas

2.2 Factors affecting children dropping out in primary school

2.2.1 Geographic and climate features

Ethnic minorities traditionally live in high mountain slopes nearby

forests where the terrain is steep and relatively complicated with a large river

system It is very difficult for children to go to school in cold days or under

heavy rains There are path tracks from villages to the commune centres,

however, landslides still occur during flooding season, so children cannot walk

to schools Summarizing it all, children face many obstacles and challenges onthe way to school

The data from a survey pointed out that 14 provinces in the Northernmountainous area were inevitably suffering from flooding including Hoa Binh,Son La, Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Lao Cai, Ha Giang, Cao Bang, Lang Son, Quang

Ninh, Yen Bai, Tuyen Quang, Bac Can, Thai Nguyen and Phu Tho'' So that,

this also put children in dangerous situations when they travel daily to school

2.2.1 Learning and teaching conditions

The majority of children did not attend pre-school education tofamiliarize themselves with the official language The learning language ispopular language so children are supposed to be familiar with this language.Back home they use their ethnic language In addition, almost all the teacherscoming from lowlands do not know ethnic languages, so that it is difficult for

them to give understandable lectures Moreover, the quality of teaching is not

good enough For these reasons, the pupils cannot understand lessons and donot want to go to school

At present, the establishment of combined classes where pupils of grade 1,

grade 2 and grade 3 join one class trained by one teacher has occurred in the

area Therefore it is very difficult for children to understand the content of theirclass when joining one class respectively The teacher must prepare differentteaching notes for each pupil The cause is that there is too little childrenattending school and lacking teachers As the result, the pupils have gaps inknowledge and acquire new knowledge difficultly, so they do not know how to

do exercises Consequently they feel desperate from their situation, becomediscouraged from learning, distracted, loosing their attention from lectures, andchat with each other during class time As a result they get bad results, feeldiscouraged, and do not want attend classes

Schooling infrastructure in the Northern mountainous areas is not goodenough There is no electricity and lack of water in some schools In some other

boarding schools, pupils have to live in temporary dorms, and eat innutritious

food These are a few factors to determine the increase in school drop-outs

We would like to share some photos to reflect poor school infrastructure

in this area

Temporary dorms for students in High school Lo Su Thang, Din Chin,Lao Cai province Source: from School and Class room MOET Solidification

Programme

This is High School Lo Su Thang in the poorest border commune Din

‘Chin of Muong Khuong district of Lao Cai province Above is a photo of the

‘temporary dorms for the pupils of the school The temporary school of Na Covillage, part of the High School Lo Su Thang, is made up of two temporary'bamboo wall houses Those are divided into three small rooms Each room is

‘approximately 5m? wide The innermost room is the teacher’s house; the rest are

«classrooms Ms Nguyen Thi Phuong, teacher in charge of Na Co School sharedithat: The High School Lo Su Thang has six small schools with over 500 pupils is

in poor conditions 42 pupils of the boarding junior secondary school have tohave lunch in a narrow kitchen They have only a bowl of rice and a vegetable

‘soup for meals, which is supported by the Government scheme for poor pupils.

‘Concretely, each pupil gets 120,000 VND per month The High School Lo Su

Thang is 200m? large There are only four rooms of brick wall; the rest are

thatched cottages with earthen walls and floors Teacher Nguyen Van Tai saidwhen he was a teacher of Lo Su Thang High School, he and other teachers had to

‘carry soil to make the foundation of the school yard and coat the walls of theSchool’s houses “At Lo Su Thang High School, teachers should have not only

22

teaching knowledge but also practical skills of carpenters and building workers.

The first concern of both teachers and pupils at this school is to have solidbuildings for class rooms and boarding houses Secondly, the pupils need morebooks and note- books

Another case is Ka Lang Primary and Secondary School in Muong Te district of Lai Chau province 300 primary and secondary pupils attend school in poor living conditions They have only rice and white salt as a meal; they have to

cross streams and forests, and set up temporary boarding cottages under very

poor conditions Some pupils reported: “I have to go back to my house twice a

month to take rice I have to seek for food myself Those who receive some

money from their families can buy some dry fishes or soya curds sometimes My parents, sisters and brother now still eat rice mixed with other cereals” A teacher

said: “ On weekends, teachers and pupils enter the forest to pick up youngbamboo, wild vegetables and ant eggs to eat them” While living in temporary

cottages, both teachers and pupils are very worried that in flooding season the

cottages may well be thrown away down to the below stream; and in dry seasonthe cottages may well be burnt.

These above two cases reflected severe circumstances of learning andteaching in schools in the mountainous areas It can be said that these highschools seemed to be very poor school facilities as described, so that it is surethat primary schools would be more neglected All those aspects may impact

children’s education in this area, causing the drop-out increase in each school

level in the mountainous areas

2.2.3 Parent and children’s thinking of education

Unaware of psychology and children’s emotions as well as facing poorliving conditions and crowded family, parents of ethnic minorities alwaysrequest their children to support in domestic work or work in fields in themountains This is reflected by the numbers of child labour Taking into accountethnic minorities — the figures are much higher than for other ethnics Forexample, the highest rate of child labour is in H’Mong ethnic group (20,45%)

compared with 1,03% of Kinh ethic group (Chart 3)'Š.

Chart 3: Rate of Labour Children (%)

'S Scientific research document of technical assistance project '*VIE02/001-SEDEMA and EMPCD”

24

It can be said that ethnic minority parents may be not fully aware oflearning process of their children They may think that it is unnecessary to lettheir children to go to school because their family is too poor and they have to

take care of meal for each of their children Children themselves might be ready

to work when their parents ask them In addition, ethnic minority families faceunplanned expenditures on the occasion of traditional holidays and events and

they often do not want to give money for their children’s learning.

Ethnic minority children like the model of accepting parent’s request Andthey agree to work, assert that they can work, and voluntarily shoulder theresponsibility for the livelihood of theirs Themselves, they don’t feel like going

to school because of lacking demand from their parent In addition, ethnic

minority children always enter primary school at the over age because of lacking

skill on official language and lacking preparatory- school attendance This onlyreinforces increasing drop-outs because children feel bored and ashamed by theyare over certain age and still study at primary school According to the WorldBank survey, 24% of ethnic minority children entering school at the over age and

the rate of Kinh ethnic group is 5%'°.

2.2.4 Influence of culture and custom and limitations of gender

equality

Culture gets along with education to form people’s behavior Cultural

activities reflect certain progress at a certain time In difficult circumstances,

culture is affected by limited awareness, poverty, education skill of parents, and

so on Backward traditional customs as ghost worships, early marriage, and

abduction have been affecting the school enrollment of children in this area.

The traditional thinking of son preference and gender based prejudice in

favour of men to women still prevail When the family faces economicdifficulties and must make the decision for children’s education, ethnic minorityparents often give this privilege to male children And female children have tostay at home to take care of family with their parents This tendency hinders girls

from attending school As mentioned above, in case a decision on educationopportunities for children in a family, priority is often given to sons.

2.2.5 The teachers issue

A sociological survey of the technical support project of the second 135th

Program has found the situation of young teachers in remote and mountainous areas quitting their jobs due to difficulties and challenges in their teaching at

school and their living conditions In particular, the poor living conditions, lack

of teaching aids, language gap the lack of awareness of traditional customs ofethnic minorities in this areas represent a challenge for teachers Moreimportantly, until now, there has been no incentive policy for teachers deployed

in the remote areas

2.2.6 Economic development conditions

The total number of poor households in the whole country was 3.05

million, and the households close to the poverty line were 1.6 million TheNorthern mountainous areas have the highest ratio of poor households,

particularly 50% in Dien Bien, 40-50% in Lai Chau, Lao Cai and Ha Giang'”.

Due to economic constraints, a lot of children in this area have to work hard on a

daily basis to help their parents This lessens schooling opportunities for

children

Traditional agricultural production methods which do not apply to

advanced science and technology to increase productivity which only keeps thehouseholds in a vicious cycle of poverty over generations The parents have not

yet attached the importance to their children’s education The children

themselves cannot gain knowledge easily Both the children and teachers have a

difference of language, which discourage them from learning Despite the fact,

their parents do not encourage them to study, but also force them to do

housework As a result, children are disadvantaged, become vulnerable and face

a difficult future In the economic difficulty condition, the school attendance of children is not a priority.

*” The survey on poverty conducted by MOLISA in 2010

Poverty and hunger are the biggest obstacles that make girl children of

ethnic minorities of H’mong, Bahnar, Jˆrai and Khmer unable to enjoy goodeducation UNICEF Representative to Vietnam Jesper Morch stated that “Bydifferent means, poverty and hunger have impacts on education opportunities ofgirl children Girl children have been possibly malnourished before or while theyare attending schools When they are able to attend schools, especially those inboarding schools, they do not have enough money to buy stationery, clothes and

food They are even under pressure to drop out of schools to take care of other

family members or help their parents earn a living” A man of Mong ethnicminority said he just could feed his child; he could not have enough money to

buy his child clothes and pay for his tuition fees; his child was worried that the

teacher would scold him for not paying tuition fees

Researches undertaken in 2008 highlighted that empowerment of women

influenced positively socio-economic development The best way to do it is to

provide girl children with access to study beyond basic education In fact, themost recent research conducted by the MOET, UNICEF and UNESCO pointed

out that girl children of ethnic minorities faced considerable challenges on the

way to the higher education levels

These above-motioned obstacles and challenges have been deepeningseriously the situation of drop-outs in general and at the primary level in theNorthern mountainous areas in particular In order to provide more evidence onthis issue and having relevant findings in practice, the research group of thethesis conducted case study in Hong Ca commune of Tran Yen district of Yen

Bai province.

2.3 Findings of case study in Hong Ca commune of Tran Yen district

of Yen Bai province

2.3.1 Overview of the Case Study

From 16th to 19th January 2012, the research group conducted the casestudy on the issue of drop-outs in primary school in Hong Ca Commune of TranYen District of Yen Bai Province-having specific characteristics of the Nothern

mountainous areas Tran Yen District is 10km far from Yen Bai city, and Hong

Ca Commune is 60 km far from its town The pathways to get to the Communeare full of obstacles and difficult of access

Hong Ca Commune has 17 villages, which totally covers 9.328 hectares

It has a population of about 5.600 inhabitants of the three major ethnic groups

Kinh, Tay and H’Mong The Commune authorities reported that the ratio of poor households in the Commune accounted represents 49% The local people’s

education is limited So far, there have been only two ethnic minority persons

who graduated from university However, in an interview with the President of the People’s Committee of Hong Ca Commune, Mr Ha Ngoc Toanh, the

Research Group found that there were about 20% of the children in theCommune who dropped out school

Mr Pham An Toan, team leader of the thesis group (in the left) interviewed

Mr Ha Ngoc Toanh, Chairperson of People’s Committee of Hong Ca Commune

(Photo: Nguyén van Duan)

The Research Group undertook intensive interviews with 5 groups,

namely primary pupils, dropout children, parents of pupils, teachers and authorities of Commune and education management staff of the District with the

aim of having a more comprehensive insight into the situation of dropping out inprimary school in the Commune The numbers of interviewees consist of 2

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children drop out, 10 primary pupils, 5 teachers, 5 parents (mothers or fathers), 2education management staff and | local authority ( Please see the Annex I oncontent of interviews).

Hong Ca Primary School has 15 classes with 303 pupils in total from

pre-school to the fifth grade The pre-school had 7 solid classrooms and 6 temporaryclassrooms including 2 on-site temporary classrooms and 4 kindergarten sites

located at 3 villages about 4 — 5 km far from the school All the pupils belong to

the H’mong ethnic minority group

The school is one of 7 primary schools of the commune where traveling isvery difficult The school is considered to be in a good condition in terms ofinfrastructure and learning movement since it has been supported by theProgramme on School and class-room construction

The following were the study results of the school’s pupils in 2011: thepercentages of good pupils were 3%, fair pupils were 10%, average pupils were

72%, and poor pupils were 15% The number of pupils continuing their studies

at junior secondary education level made up 85% in 2009 In 2011, this numberreduced to 80%, and dropouts accounted for 20%

2.3.2 Major Fact Findings

a) The progress of implementation of education policies

The research group conducted intensive interview with the Chairperson of the People’s Committee of the Commune, Mr Ha Ngoc Toanh in the field trip It

is known that for years the Commune Government and schools together have

made great efforts to implement policies on supporting education in localities as

follows:

+ Implementing (?) the policy issued by the Decision No 112/QD-TTg ofthe Prime Minister, the Full Day Schooling Scheme was implemented.Accordingly, primary pupils of poor households were provided with lunches atschool However, only about 40% of the pupils enjoyed the treatment The rest

had to bring their own ready meals or rice to cook at school Since many pupils

belonging to households of poverty or under poverty line had not yet receivedthe favorable treatment, schools requested that the Commune should mobilize

more funds to support the pupils, but the Commune’s limited budget could notmeet the demand This is a big challenge to the schools and local Government inthe implementation of the pilot Full Day Schooling Scheme.

+ The education support policy for children of poor households was alsoimplemented Yet, the payment of education allowance was often behind

schedule For instance, pupils did not receive the allowance during school year

until they had summer holidays or the next school year The schools andCommune authorities had to spend too much time in clarifying the people’s

queries on this issue

+ The Commune Government always pays attention to meeting thedemand of schools; arranging enough construction area for schools, particularly

10 square meters per pupil on average; calling on households to contribute with

building materials (such as bamboo) to build boarding houses; calling on

benefactors, socio-political organizations or wealthy families to contribute to the

Study Encouragement Fund to support poor pupils; promoting behavior

communication change of the public on gender equality, elimination of theharmful traditional practice of early marriage and the abuse of child labour withfocus on children’s rights as well

Both teachers and pupils go to Hong Ca School every day on this pathway

(Photo: Nguyen Van Duan)

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b) Teachers’ issue:

As found at the fieldtrip teacher might be the core issue for children going

to school The Headmaster of the School, Ms Hoang Thi Hong Nhan shared thatdespite such difficulties as living conditions of both teachers and pupils,

disadvantaged geographic and climate features, many teachers still had a strong

attachment to the teaching life The teachers always had to implement “the threeprinciples of togetherness”, namely “Eating together”, “Living together” and

“Learning together” “Eating together” means teachers have to abstain fromlunch to feed their pupils whe are pocr and have nothing for lunch “Livingtogether” means teachers have to mobilize pupils’ parents to bring them toschools and take care of them like their own children “Learning together” meansteachers have to advise pupils gently about learning The Headmaster told that

not only the teachers at Hong Ca School but all the teachers at the Northern

mountainous area had to do so in order to mobilize children to attend school

c) Pupils at school:

In the case study, pupil respondents said that they went to school becausethe incentives for studying provided such as books, notebooks and pen.Sometimes they received warm clothes and child-boots so that they would like to

go to school The Research Group visited all the classes, and found that each

class had from 2 to 3 pupils

Pupils of 2 Hong Ca Primary School in the break time

(Pho to: Nguyen Van Duan)

The Research Group found that parents always gave favorable treatment

to sons than daughters Sons went out more often, and were rarely forced to do

housework by their parents Ho Thi Ninh, a H’Mong school girl in the 5" grade

of Hong Ca Primary School 2 said whenever she went home, she had to cook,

graze cattle and take care of her younger brother She liked learning, but she justcould not do that without her parents’ permission Whenever her parents told her

to be off school, she must have done it

The group members interviewed Ho Thi Ninh at home-Pupil of the 5" Grade

of Hong Ca Primary Schools(Photo: Do Quang Ngoc)

a) Dropping out of school:

The interview with the headmaster also highlighted major obstacles to

school attendance: long walking distance (about 5 km) and dangers associatedwith that (crossing streams walking on pathway), and poverty In some cases, theteachers had to come to pupils’ houses to encourage them to attend schoolregularly Teacher Nguyen Anh Tuan, Vice Headmaster of the School, added: “It

was really problematic for pupils at the primary level in the last years Some of

the pupils were often late for classes and had a bad performance so they had to

repeat their grade, and just could move up to the junior secondary level (6"

grade) when they reached 12-13 years Due to early marriage practice and thecustom of abducting girls to become wives of H’Mong people, school girls had

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to drop out of school early Boys still went to school Yet suffering from theburden of family life children’s learning ability felt down If they would notimprove, they would drop out of school Some pupils were late for school from 5

to 10 days after summer holiday and New Year’s holiday During harvests, somepupils willingly asked for non-attendance to help their parents while some

parents requested their children to stay at home to help them harvesting After

the harvests, children went to school again, but could not catch up with the rest

of the class, which led to dropping out of school.”

Vu A Dinh, a 12 years-old boy, 3" grade drop-out said that he did not go

to school because of not having warm clothes to go to school in In addition, hisparent said that he ought to be at home to graze buffaloes and he seemed to begrown up like adult so that he should not be going to school

e) The kindergarten teacher

The teaching and learning at kindergarten was even harder The ResearchGroup interviewed a teacher, Ms Pham Thi Men whose house was 25 km farfrom her kindergarten She was the teacher of 16 children, including a little childfollowing his sister The child named Vang Thi Phuong was often absent as she

followed her parents to the fields in the mountains Every early morning, the

teacher came to all the children’s houses to accompany them to the kindergarten.She often carried weak children on her back while carrying their rice boxes inher hands At the kindergarten, she washed their faces, hands and legs, and letthem have breakfast before the class started As the classroom was a temporary

house with spaced bamboo walls and the children did not wear enough warm clothes, she used cardboard covers and papers to paste on the spaces so as to

make the children feel warm As the steps to the classroom were too long and 15meters high, the teacher herself bought cement to repair the steps to make them

less dangerous for the children In winter, she came to wealthy families to ask them for warm clothes for the children.

Lunch break at a Hong Ca kindergarten class in Tran Yen, Yen Bai province

(Photo: Pham An Toan)The research group also visited some households in the Commune In this,almost of H’Mong respondents who are parents of pupils and drop-out childrenwere interviewed

Interviewing Ms Sung Thi Dinh, 46 years-old, mother of a pupil, H’Mong ethnic

group on the way to Hong Ca Commnue

(Photo: Hoang Thi Thu Huyen)

In case of disabled children, they cannot attend school for many reasons,but in Hong Ca Commune the major reason it is the walking distance to schoolwhich is full of obstacles and difficult to access Therefore, only a few disabled

children attended school They could learn just up to the 3“ or 4" grade, and

dropped-out then Although teachers came to their houses to encourage them tocome back to school, their missions were unsuccessful This was partly caused

by the fact the children felt depressed from their situation as they were not able

to catch up with their peers

Based on the above-mentioned findings, the Research Group foundvaluable fact-findings to demonstrate persuasively the analysis on the situation

of dropping out of school at the primary education level in the Northernmountainous area Almost all the dimensions of the drop-out issue found in theprevious studies as mentioned above were similar to what have been explored inthe Case Study However, we found that teacher may be even a key point for

helping to minimize drop-outs That means that teachers very actively visit each family to persuade pupil’s parents and children for school attendance They

always conduct implement “the three principles of togetherness” movement,namely “Eating together”, “Living together” and “Learning together” It may

become to be a research topic for the future.

CHAPTER IISOLUTIONS TO REDUCE DROPPING OUT OF PRIMARY SCHOOL,

CHILDREN IN THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINOUS AREAS

How to attract children to primary school attendance? Primary educationshapes an important background for children In these early stages of education,learning the language and learning how to become a good citizen should be paidattention to For these reasons, children are supposed to be encouraged to go toschool without having any pressure when “each day at school is a day of

happiness and fun” This is the expectation of all schools and the whole society.

Based on the analysis of the situation of children dropping out from primaryschools, some solutions should be considered to minimize this problem as

follows

3.1 Implementing incentive teacher policies in the mountainous areas

In reality, there is a huge number of poorly performing pupils in theNorthern moutainous areas, particularly in the specially disadvantagedcommunes, including a serious shortage of human resources (teachers) In order

to ensure learning and teaching conditions of primary schools in these areas,teacher incentive policies should be implemented with the aim to assure quality

of teacher’s life in the mountainous areas as well as helping them integrate intoethnic minority people’s life

There should be promoted a supportive policy for teachers who workmore than their teaching hours while being assigned to visit each household inorder to mobilize and instruct pupils on their home work; sometimes they come

together with the commune staff or a head of the village to advice parents how to

motivate their children to learn

Programme on information and education should be designed and

implemented by teachers with the aim of mobilizing community's understanding

on children going to school, encouraging and prioritizing to recruit local ethnicminority teachers

3.2 Improving local infrastructure and school facilities

School is an imporant educational environment where teachers are theorganizers, students are the executers and textbooks and teaching equipment arethe tools According to education specialists, learning environment is the secondteacher at school This means it is the space, the learning environment andconditions that become important elements in deciding and encouragingstudents to learn In addition, it also helps children to reduce stressand fear or

2discomfort during the learning process This enviroment is named a second

teacher during teaching and learning processes, it is simply friendlyenvironment If the learning environment is the second teacher in learning andteaching processes, a friendly environment needs a system of organization and

methodology to serve to those learning and teaching activities This system of

organization and methodology is designed and implemented by teachers with theaim that all students, whether being excellent, good, fair and poor, can study andhave the right to study Since school is important educational environment, itshould reach the following criteria:

- Good facility and infrastructure, being qualified in terms of classroom,teaching aids as well as standard number of student per class according to theregulation of the Ministry of Education and Training(from 30 students/ 1 class to

a maximum of 45 students per class); learning and playing duration in a day;playing space and equipments for physical education, train, clean and freshenvironment

- Learning content was found as fair , though not suitable with the ageand the psychology of children to shape their basic knowledge background, skills

and qualification from writing to reading, observing, calculating and critical

thinking

- Good studying environment is an important element to keep childrenfeel like attending school However, the organizers and implementers ofeducation curricula at schools are teachers Teachers also act as a bridge between

schools and families, creating a friendly relationship to motivate children to go

to school happily and learn enthusiastically

- Besides, system of transportation infrastructure of villages andcommunes should be improved, decreasing path walk commune to commune to

help local people travel easier, including going to school of children at locality.

3.3 Working with parents and children towards greater schoolattendance

According to the above analysis, most of ethnic minority parents do notpay proper attention to their children’s education This is a great concern but on

the other hand, some other parents care too much about the children and stress

them with their own expectations In fact, many ethnic minorities’ parents only

wish their children were more intelligent and performed better than the others without caring of the children’s capacity, physical and intellectual health This

leads to the fact that many families do not encourage or mind the children’s

education in the first years of schooling Particularly, ethnic minorities’ children and those in mountainous areas do not have other extra curricula classes such as

music, drawing, dancing, martial arts, etc Ethnic minority children also have

little time and energy for entertainment and recreation as compared to children in

the urban areas Attending school is not popular, it only makes children feel

scared and bored every time they think of school.

To make children like going to school, family must be influenced first

Parents should change their attitude and adopt measures to encourage their children to go to school They should see their children as growing tress.

Gradually, children will grow up and learn the essence of life Parents shouldhave full understanding and help children gain awareness that going to school

means to learn more about life, to find answers to questions they usually ask parents every day It is important to make children understand they go to school

for the sake of themselves rather than upon parents’ request By that way,children will see schooling as fun and joy Parents should always make children

feel happy every time they go to school

3.4 Communication and awareness raising on the importance ofeducation in communities

Behavior change communication and awareness raising on importance ofeducation for ethnic minorities are still challenging It is necessary to classifyethnic minorities, as a different group with special communication needs to buildthe suitable communication programs Each group has different characteristicsand capacity

- Regarding parents with different philosophy and _ educationalbackground, we should challenge the opinion that education is not useful andchildren need to work to help families, in particular case of poor and remotefamilies cannot facilitate children’s school attendance

- For drop-out children, there should be supportive measures to addressthe problem that children feel too discouraged to go to school because theycannot understand the lecture Other significant reasons are poor health, lack ofencouragement from teachers and parents or lacking financial resources forlunches and warm clothes

- For disabled children: improve the management capacity and strengtheninter-sectoral cooperation to take care and educate disabled children;

- Increase investments in building more specialized schools in provinces;improve infrastructure for existing schools to make them user-friendly fordisabled children

3.5 Knowledge sharing and enhancing awareness on basic humanrights

There should be outreach programmes, cultural exchange included in thechildren’s rights information, education and communication (IEC) programme

This shall create the confidence and explore the initiative of the children.

Children have the right to participate because they are members offamilies and the society Each child is a developing individual with his/her ownconception of the world Their information intake process, if being sharedproperly, shall help them to develop The right to participate is the prerequisite